Playing a pillow
by Ebenbild
Summary: Harry Potter has just arrived in Hogwarts and is selected into the house of Gryffindor. But who is the visitor, who is visiting sleeping Harry some time after midnight? What does he want from Harry and what is he doing?


_Disclaimer: _Harry Potter does not belong to me. I'm just borrowing a few characters and play with them. After that I will give them back nearly unharmed. xD

_Warnings: 1) _Maybe the characters are a bit OOC.

2) English is not my first language. Whoever finds a mistake can keep it. xD

3) I'm open for constructive criticism but I would like to know what you are thinking.

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**Playing a pillow**

The first time he came was the day, the boy arrived. He had seen the boy in the great hall, waiting to be selected into one of the four houses. Of course he had watched the boy closely. Unfortunately he was not able to see much. The boy was too far away and when he had been selected, he had been even farer away to see.

So he had done the only thing he could do to have a closer look. As soon as it was a save time after midnight he went to the tower of the Gryffindors. McGonagall was the head of the house but he didn't bother to tell her that he was coming. He simply came. He snuck into the common room by using the floo network. After that it was quite easy to find the boy, who was sleeping soundless into one of the bed in the boy's dorm.

That was the first time he had been able to have a closer look at the boy. Messy black hair. A small, still childish face. The glasses next to the bed. At that moment he nearly regretted that he had wanted to see the boy closely. It was a heart breaking event. He had hoped to see what he was longing to see in the boy's face. But there was nothing. In this few seconds, bent forward to the boy's face, he hated him. He hated the boy for being so ungrateful, so - _him._

Yeah. He hated the boy for that.

And maybe he would have turned away from the boy that day, maybe he would have let the boy alone when the things after that hadn't happened.

He was turning when the boy suddenly started to mourn. Small hands were grapping the pillow, squeezing it as if a life was depending on it. The boy began to kick, the blanket fell down on the ground. His breath got faster and lighter. Shaking in fear, rolling around in the bed, the cries of the boy got louder and louder. A nightmare. An evil one. One of that nightmares a young child would awake from, crying for mommy and daddy. But not only him. When the boy got louder the other boys also stirred. Just a few minutes and the whole dorm would be awake, hearing the boy in front of him crying for - for whom? There was no mommy and daddy to cry for. There was just the darkness and a lonely little boy. But that was not one of his problems.

One long moment he was just looking at the now fitful sleeping boy, trying to convince himself to go. He couldn't. He didn't want to think of a boy waking from a nightmare in the dark and in the cold. So he sighted then he bowed to pick up the fallen blanket. He had not liked what he had seen in the boy's face but that was no excuse to let the boy quiver in the cool air of the night. He held up the blanket ready to cover the boy, then he hesitated. The boy was still shaking in his sleep, trapped in his nightmare. When he would cover the boy now, the blanket would a minute later be again on the floor. There was no way the boy wouldn't kick it out of the bed as soon as he would be covered up again.

So there was just one way to stop the boy. Sighting he sat down on the bed next to the boy. No-one would ever know. Gently he put down the blanket, tucking in the young boy in front of him. The boy was still mourning and shaking in fear.

"Shh, little one. It's okay. I'm here. No-one will be able to harm you."

Soothing words in the darkness. He himself tried to deny that he was the one, saying them to the shaking boy in the bed. But the words reached the sleeping child in front of him. One of the boy's hands let go of the pillow he was squeezing and reached out to the soothing voice. The little hand found the sleeve of the adult's cloth, squeezing it now as hart as the pillow before.

"It's okay. I am here. I am here…"

He wouldn't do it. He tried to restrain himself from even more easing the boy. He had done enough. More than enough. After all he couldn't say why he had soothed the boy in the first place and to calm him down now with stroking the messy hair of the boy would definitely nothing he should do. After all the boy was _his _son. The son of that one man he had sworn never to forgive. Even thinking of calming the boy down was near breaking his oath. Stroking the boy's hair while cradling him was as impossible as changing in a girl. So he was definitely not going to cradle the young boy in front of him!

The boy pulled the sleeve and the arm in the sleeve near. His other hand also let go of the pillow, reaching out to the warm hand of the man who had tried to sooth him. Hugging the hand his breath got deeper again.

"Hey, let go! I'm not a teddy!" the man hissed nearly soundless. The man tried to break free from the tight grip of the little boy. Of course he would have been able to get free if he had really pulled but the man wanted not to wake up the boy so his hissing and pulling was lighter than it normally would be.

"Boy!"

The boy's grip didn't lose one bit rather he got even nearer to the man and finally snuggled to him.

"Hey, boy!"

The boy didn't react.

"Boy, let go! I'm not a pillow! Hey!"

Although protesting the man reached out to the boys head putting it onto his lap so that the boy was lying more comfortable. He should not do this! The boy was the son of his sworn enemy! The boy looked exactly like his sworn enemy! He would not - the boy opened one eye, still half asleep. Bright green hit the man, turned him into stone.

"U're eere", the boy mumbled, "know u would be."

What was the child dreaming? Who was he thinking of while talking?!

Than the breathing of the child got deeper again, while he was drifting back into sleep. The man needed a few moments before he himself breathed again. It would have been bad when the boy would have woken up. But that was not the thing which bothered the man.

The eyes were green. The brown eyes of his sworn enemy were replaced by the green of the boy's mother. Without thinking the man began to cradle the boy. It took him a few moments before he recognised what he was doing. He was cradling the son of - _her. _His original thoughts were changed while he was thinking them. Her son. The only thing from her that was left in the world. No wonder he was cradling it. No wonder he was playing the human pillow for it!

Green eyes. The boy had green eyes. Somehow he was deeply grateful that there was a thing that was left of her – even it was just a pair of green eyes in the face of his sworn enemy.

"But that will change nothing" he whispered in the dark "I will not treat you differently because of that."

While stroking the boy's messy hair the adult swore that the young boy would pay for this night. Tomorrow in class he would make sure that the boy would never do something like that again. Tomorrow he would make sure that the boy would never reach out to him again!

Back then he hadn't known that his oath would do nothing. He had hoped, that the boy would stay away from him when he treated him badly. It worked. The boy learned to hate him. The boy never wanted to be alone with him.

But that wasn't enough. It wasn't the boy who was searching the closeness. It was him. He was trying to convince himself to stay away, but he couldn't. As often as he could he would come to the dorms at night. He would come while everyone was sleeping and he would lean at the window, watching the boy in his sleep.

Often, the boy had nightmares. When they started, he would come to the boy, would cradle him and play the human pillow. He would sooth him back to sleep, hoping, that the boy wouldn't wake up while doing so.

It would be bad, if the boy would wake up and see him. He was no Gryffindor, so he shouldn't be here. No-one should know what he was doing here. And no-one knew. Not even the bright Albus Dumbledore. But it was especially the boy who shouldn't know.

After all, the boy was Harry Potter - and the adult was the head of the house of Slytherin, the sworn enemy of Harry Potter's father…


End file.
